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TCG Software Stack (TSS) Specification

The TCG TPM 1.2 Main specification defines a subsystem with protected storage and protected capabilities. This subsystem is the Trusted Platform Module (TPM). Since the TPM is both a subsystem intended to provide trust and to be an inexpensive component, resources within it are restricted.

This narrowing of the resources, while making the security properties easier and cheaper to build and verify, causes the interfaces and capabilities to be cumbersome. The TCG architecture has solved this by separating the functions requiring the protected storage and capabilities from the functions that do not; putting those that do not into the platform’s main processor and memory space where processing power and storage exceed that of the TPM. The modules and components that provide this supporting functionality comprise the TSS.